[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 160 (Thursday, September 27, 2018)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1325]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                MALNUTRITION AWARENESS WEEK RECOGNITION

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. LYNN JENKINS

                               of kansas

                    in the house of representatives

                      Thursday, September 27, 2018

  Ms. JENKINS of Kansas. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in recognition of 
this week as Malnutrition Awareness Week.
  Malnutrition Awareness Week is a multi-organizational, multi-pronged 
campaign created by the American Society for Parenteral and Enteral 
Nutrition. This campaign seeks to educate healthcare professionals to 
identify and treat for malnutrition earlier. It seeks to educate 
consumers and patients to discuss their nutrition status with health 
care professionals and increase awareness of nutrition's role on 
patient recovery.
  Every 60 seconds, 10 hospitalized patients with malnutrition go 
undiagnosed, and many of these patients are older adults. Yet, there 
are common-sense solutions that can close this care gap.
  We cannot solve what we do not first measure. Unfortunately, we do 
not truly know the full extent of the malnutrition problem plaguing our 
senior population. This is because screening measures for malnutrition 
are not a part of our national health surveys and malnutrition is not 
included in the national health indicators and goals for older 
Americans that help shape public health programs and guide healthcare 
professionals. I therefore call on the U.S. Department of Health and 
Human Services to routinely include malnutrition screening measures in 
national health surveys of older adults and include malnutrition among 
national key health indicators and Healthy People 2030 goals for older 
adults.
  We cannot expect older adults and their families to take steps to 
address malnutrition if we do not give guidance on identification of 
and interventions for the problem. The U.S. Department of Health and 
Human Services and U.S. Department of Agriculture develop new national 
dietary guidelines every five years, but the guidelines have never 
addressed the issue of older adult malnutrition. I therefore urge HHS 
and USDA to include dietary guidance for the prevention and treatment 
of older adult malnutrition and the closely aligned problem of age-
related sarcopenia, the loss of strength and muscle, in the 2020 
Dietary Guidelines for Americans.
  We cannot advance malnutrition care and promote improved patient 
recovery if we do not align the identification of and interventions for 
malnutrition with health care quality incentive programs. Malnutrition 
can lead to greater risk of chronic disease, frailty, disability, and 
increases in healthcare costs, yet nutrition status is rarely evaluated 
and managed as individuals transition across care settings. I therefore 
call on the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to include 
malnutrition related quality measures in Traditional Medicare quality 
programs as well as include measures related to malnutrition in care 
transition programs.

                          ____________________